discuss There are some people list millions of other people's domain on Afternic

[70ym]

https://www.afternic.com/gdntc1
gdntc1

https://www.afternic.com/aliyuming
aliyuming

These people list about millions of other people's domain on afternic.
When I try to list my domain, it will show that my domain already list by these people. And I need to spend 10 minutes to send them an email and wait for a week if I want to list my domain.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

You really shouldn't be using your registrar's DNS.

It's like sales venues... Why do you think you pay less commission when you're using their DNS ?

It's might be convenient, granted.

However: Data, data and control.

That definitely was a concern of mine. My strong preference is to not use ns3 or txt,especially not longterm.

Note also that now, in Icann, I notice that some listings are showing those ns3 verification, along with the ns1 and ns2 servers. I wonder how a potential buyer of a domain perceives that. It looked peculiar to me.

Simplicity is best.

 

[branding]

Simplicity is best.

Couldn't agree more

 

[internext]

We definitely need a strong competitor to wipe godaddy out of the market.

Best and most accurate post ever on NP!! Bravo!!

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

We definitely need a strong competitor to wipe godaddy out of the market.

Best and most accurate post ever on NP!! Bravo!!

OK, folks. There are definitely strong feelings about GD. And yet, there have been some great successes for some NP members using Dan and Afternic.

Increased competition would likly create major incentives for substantial Improvements within the GD empire.

Afternic, to me, still seems to be the best for sales. Dynadot does seem to be gaining more traction. Hopefully, some healthy competition will help them and other registrars really thrive in the future.

Resolving verification issues and allowing only authorized domain listings would be a good start.

 

[tld4me]

OK, folks. There are definitely strong feelings about GD. And yet, there have been some great successes for some NP members using Dan and Afternic.

Increased competition would likly create major incentives for substantial Improvements within the GD empire.

Afternic, to me, still seems to be the best for sales. Dynadot does seem to be gaining more traction. Hopefully, some healthy competition will help them and other registrars really thrive in the future.

Resolving verification issues and allowing only authorized domain listings would be a good start.

I certainly understand the want to keep the discussion you started within this thread focused and constructive.

I'm new to this community and new to being a domainer. Reading through various posts on this website, there are certainly a number of issues with GoDaddy. (which are valid!)

GoDaddy also isn't new. It's not like they are a fledgling company that hasn't shown their hand yet and is trying to build a new small product.

GoDaddy is huge and established. Yet, they have gone downhill for years. I became a @GoDaddy customer approximately 20 years ago. Since then, as they have expanded, I've seen their products become more expensive. I've also seen the functionality of their website become less useful and riddled with bugs. I now talk about GoDaddy the way I used to talk about their competitors when I first went to GoDaddy. One thing I'm glad they improved on was the now ease of transferring domains AWAY from GoDaddy. I've moved almost all of mine.

The issues complained about in this thread have been on GoDaddy's radar for years.

The torches and pitchforks being raised at this point are warranted.

You all that have been doing this for years: Which government agency in the US would be best for me to contact and describe these business practices? I'm thinking the FTC, but I don't know if I'm moving in the wrong direction. I'd like to focus my anger somewhere that actually might eventually produce change.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

You all that have been doing this for years: Which government agency in the US would be best for me to contact and describe these business practices? I'm thinking the FTC, but I don't know if I'm moving in the wrong direction. I'd like to focus my anger somewhere that actually might eventually produce change.

The FTC may be receptive, or perhaps able to point you in the right direction. The State Attorney General's may be able also to provide some help.

ICANN really impressed me in dealing with a Registrar issue that was quickly resolved. You could review their website and email to inquire if they can provide assistance.

It's always expected first with any of these agencies that you really tried to resolve the problems with the company first. I'm wondering if the opening poster of this thread, @70ym, has found a permanent, positive resolution for this frustrating issue?

 

[HotKey]

We definitely need a strong competitor to wipe godaddy out of the market.

Yes but they will buy them

**

Sent an email off to AN, fraudulent listings removed. Still, my time used for something I never asked for and which could easily be rectified by proper platform management.

 

[Fka200]

This is interesting, I know of a company who suddenly lost their domain (their whole business up and running on that domain).

Afternic sold the domain with a BIN price (something like $1200), and because it was already registered at GoDaddy, they just did a 'fast transfer' to the buyer's account.

The company claims that they never listed their domain name for sale, especially with a low BIN price.

What I'm now wondering is that if someone were to list YOUR domain with a BIN price, someone bought it (paid that BIN price), would it actually sell and go through 'fast transfer'.

This right here is LITERALLY my biggest fear. I get emails all day telling me I need to confirm on Dynadot so I can list on Afternic even though I did nothing. I lose literal sanity over this. I have one doman that's especially always targeted and it scares the sh1t out of me.

 

[kor]

Yes but they will buy them

This means they weren't a strong enough rival.

 

[tld4me]

The FTC may be receptive, or perhaps able to point you in the right direction. The State Attorney General's may be able also to provide some help.

ICANN really impressed me in dealing with a Registrar issue that was quickly resolved. You could review their website and email to inquire if they can provide assistance.

It's always expected first with any of these agencies that you really tried to resolve the problems with the company first. I'm wondering if the opening poster of this thread, @70ym, has found a permanent, positive resolution for this frustrating issue?

Thank you for your comment.

I went to my state Attorney General's website and it didn't look like they allowed for the submission of anonymous reports. It seemed from some of their examples that the FTC may actually be the correct path to go.

The FTC does allow for anonymous reports. This was import to me, as information submitted can become public record. I really don't need the retaliation of a 15+ billion dollar corporation ruining my life. @GoDaddy

I filed a report with the FTC. Once the report was submitted it says:

- Your report will help us in our efforts to protect all consumers. Thank You!
- We can't resolve your individual report, but we use reports to investigate and bring cases against fraud, scams, and bad business practices.
- We share your report with our law enforcement partners who also use reports to investigate and bring cases against fraud, scams, and bad business practices.

So who knows if anything will happen, but I encourage anyone else reading this to also file a complaint with the FTC if these issues impact you.

https: //reportfraud . ftc . gov/ (remove spaces)

I will look into ICANN and see if they have anything similar for submitting concerns.

 

[GoDaddy]

Because this has been discussed here in the past week, we want to share our statement on Afternic's commitment to listing integrity, and the response to a recent event: https://blog.afternic.com/listing-integrity/

 

[DomainNature]

Because this has been discussed here in the past week, we want to share our statement on Afternic's commitment to listing integrity, and the response to a recent event: https://blog.afternic.com/listing-integrity/

I think your company allows this to happen on purpose and intentional, not sure what is the real reason but I can speculate on a couple of things.

1. Godaddy/Afternic wants to force the real owners to come and join/list their domains on Afternic.
2. Make Godaddy beast even bigger than it is, aka showing to end users their big list of domains and counts.
3. Marketing tactic.

You could have made like SEDO but no you like to play with other small things, like pretending that you do something, when you are just running on a oily floor.
P.s. I agree with Brad on what he said in the other topic.

 

[Jannes]

On some level, there's also an incentive to keep customer support busy and therefore employed.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

I filed a report with the FTC. Once the report was submitted it says:

- Your report will help us in our efforts to protect all consumers. Thank You!
- We can't resolve your individual report, but we use reports to investigate and bring cases against fraud, scams, and bad business practices.
- We share your report with our law enforcement partners who also use reports to investigate and bring cases against fraud, scams, and bad business practices.

So who knows if anything will happen, but I encourage anyone else reading this to also file a complaint with the FTC if these issues impact you.

https: //reportfraud . ftc . gov/ (remove spaces)

I will look into ICANN and see if they have anything similar for submitting concerns.

Thank you for shariing this information. You may have opened the flood gates for others to report their experiences.

Usually these investigative agencies benefit by receiving detailed facts that confirm your complaint. So you may want to see if that can be submitted but still kept confidential. Or, would providing some anonomized data be sufficient?

It's good to see that, by their response on this thread, that GoDaddy is at least still trying to address this proble. Nonetheless, to me it is shocking that the fake listings, even a year later, still apparently remains such a pervasive proiblem.

 

[kor]

Because this has been discussed here in the past week, we want to share our statement on Afternic's commitment to listing integrity, and the response to a recent event: ...

All this you wrote is nonsense.

You have to come up with a sharp and radical solution to solve the huge critical problem experienced by hundreds of afternic users.

Because there are still users experiencing the same problem. They will probably continue to experience it later because you choose to sweep the problems under the carpet every time instead of solving them.

 

[branding]

You have to come up with a sharp and radical solution to solve the huge critical problem experienced by hundreds of afternic users

Its quite easy... mandatory ownership verification through either TXT records, whois verification or nameserver verification.

They already have the tech/system in place. They refuse to though, to accommodate the lobby of big portfolio holders who can't be arsed to get with the time.

Also, it would affect the way expired domains are handled/listed, which could cost them.

Anyway...

Dan/AN/GD is advanced enough to scan the root zone for domains using my verification nameserver and autoadd it to my portfolio, yet they refuse to make verification mandatory.

Insane.

Domaining is a relatively small niche though... It's not where the money is at for a gorilla like GD.

 

[tld4me]

They already have the tech/system in place. They refuse to though, to accommodate the lobby of big portfolio holders who can't be arsed to get with the time.

I agree with your comments. I am curious about this part about the "big portfolio holders". I've read similar comments on this forum, but I don't know what it is referring to. Could you please fill me in?

I assume that if there are big account holders they are using some form of automation and lists to keep track of and edit their domain inventory. With things like TXT records, they can batch edit their domains to add the TXT record.

I'm probably looking at this too simply and ignoring some issue. What is the possible issue(s) for these big account holders having to provide ownership verification before being able to list domains?

 

[branding]

I agree with your comments. I am curious about this part about the "big portfolio holders". I've read similar comments on this forum, but I don't know what it is referring to. Could you please fill me in?

I assume that if there are big account holders they are using some form of automation and lists to keep track of and edit their domain inventory. With things like TXT records, they can batch edit their domains to add the TXT record.

I'm probably looking at this too simply and ignoring some issue. What is the possible issue(s) for these big account holders having to provide ownership verification before being able to list domains?

Well, I must admit I don't have the quotes or references at hand but it was discussed (long time ago) it's too much of a hassle for some to add txt records for verification for people who own thousands of domains.

It takes some reading between the lines.

 

[Jannes]

Well, I must admit I don't have the quotes or references at hand but it was discussed (long time ago) it's too much of a hassle for some to add txt records for verification for people who own thousands of domains.

It takes some reading between the lines.

But haven't they already listed their portfolios? Verification could be mandatory for new listings only.

 

[branding]

But haven't they already listed their portfolios? Verification could be mandatory for new listings only.

Maybe. But verification of ownership should be an ongoing check. Like at least once every week. Scan all listed domains for matching txt/dns records, if negative: delete or put on hold for a few days.

There's nothing preventing them from doing so from a technical pov. Cost is to be neglected.

It's quite easy to do.

It's insane to think we have the power of AI these days but basic things like the matter at hand remain an issue.

 

[Future Sensors]

verification of ownership should be an ongoing check. Like at least once every week.

I understand your starting point, where you manage your name server yourself, and verification TXT records for multiple marketplaces are permanently present in your zone(s) simultaneously.

However, with the way domain landers are set up today, usually by completely delegating DNS to a single marketplace, it's not that easy to achieve without people going completely crazy. Unless, of course, you use only 1 marketplace.

I do appreciate the thought of finally sorting things out properly.

 

[branding]

I understand your starting point, where you manage your name server yourself, and verification TXT records for multiple marketplaces are permanently present in your zone(s) simultaneously.

However, with the way domain landers are set up today, usually by completely delegating DNS to a single marketplace, it's not that easy to achieve without people going completely crazy. Unless, of course, you use only 1 marketplace.

I do appreciate the thought of finally sorting things out properly.

Fair point. If that's the case, who's to blame though... The investor or the venues?

Personally, I don't think the venues care enough. At the same time, investors aren't bothered enough to spend little time and money on a working solution.

Say $10/month to give you peace of mind and know your domains are listed correctly. That's a tough sell in this industry.

It can be fixed and should be fixed.

Dan was on the right track. Unfortunately they crumbled (understandable) under pressure.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Some of you may be getting tired of seeing this thread title.
Sadly, the issue may be becoming even more relevant to ongoing listing misdeeds.
Now, there may be an even more disturbing twist.

I had removed all of my Afternic listings directly from my AN account. The domains had been listed there through the Dynadot direct AN listing feature. I even clicked to have the Afternic-Dynadot connection removed. Today, I found that on my Dynadot portfolio, one of the domains was being shown as listed on AN by me. Yes, I checked on AN, and apparently someone had listed one of my domains there, priced higher than what I had listed previously.Dynadot customer support referred me to Afternic to have the spurious listing removed.

The tipping point here, though, is that the fake listing was being propagated to my Dynadot panel as if it was my own. And when I clicked on the AN icon to see the listing on the Dynadot panel, there was a difference that helped me spot this as a fake. THERE WAS NO BUTTON ONTHE FAKE LISTING TO HAVE IT REMOVED.

So, folks, if you are getting unexplained FT approval requests, and are uncertain whether the Dynadot/AN listng is actually yours, check for the button being present that allows you to click to remove it. If it's not there, you can doublecheck directly at Afternic, and spot the imposter.

It is alarming that the owner of a domain can now have an unwanted seller's listing propagated to the actual owner's registrar portfolio vew. And, perhaps even more disturbing is seeing this when the entire Dynadot-Afternic link was supposedly removed.

 

[branding]

Some of you may be getting tired of seeing this thread title.
Sadly, the issue may be becoming even more relevant to ongoing listing misdeeds.
Now, there may be an even more disturbing twist.

I had removed all of my Afternic listings directly from my AN account. The domains had been listed there through the Dynadot direct AN listing feature. I even clicked to have the Afternic-Dynadot connection removed. Today, I found that on my Dynadot portfolio, one of the domains was being shown as listed on AN by me. Yes, I checked on AN, and apparently someone had listed one of my domains there, priced higher than what I had listed previously.Dynadot customer support referred me to Afternic to have the spurious listing removed.

The tipping point here, though, is that the fake listing was being propagated to my Dynadot panel as if it was my own. And when I clicked on the AN icon to see the listing on the Dynadot panel, there was a difference that helped me spot this as a fake. THERE WAS NO BUTTON ONTHE FAKE LISTING TO HAVE IT REMOVED.

So, folks, if you are getting unexplained FT approval requests, and are uncertain whether the Dynadot/AN listng is actually yours, check for the button being present that allows you to click to remove it. If it's not there, you can doublecheck directly at Afternic, and spot the imposter.

It is alarming that the owner of a domain can now have an unwanted seller's listing propagated to the actual owner's registrar portfolio vew. And, perhaps even more disturbing is seeing this when the entire Dynadot-Afternic link was supposedly removed.

@Dynadot ?

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

As an update, I've learned that GoDaddy (i.e Afternic and Dan) now no longer accepts screen shots for removal purposes.

So, if you do not list with Godaddy, it appears that you have to remove your listings from your current Non-Godaaddy marketplace temporarily, You then make the control panels changes with ns3 or txt and redirect all of those domains to Godaddy (i.e. Dan or Afternic). You then wait for Godaddy to verify your ownersihip. Then. they delete the unauthorized listing. At thgat point you can redo all of your control panel setting to redirect your landers to your non-Godaddy marketplace.

And presumably all of this may be futile. Until Godaddy has mandatory verification upfront, there appears to be nothing to stop the fraudsters from relisting. You get todo this all over again every time you discover another unauthorized listing.

So it appears that there is nothing to stop the rogue sellers from relisting after you go through all of this effort.

Some say just list everything with Dan and Afternic as well. My frank respnse to that would not be suitable for younger folks that may be reading this forum.

Usiing these unauthorized listings to force actual domain owners to list wiuth you? I don't think so. Imagine if other marketplaces start doing that? Mandatory verification upfront is simple and likely will need to be the required standard in the future for ALL domain marketplaces.